Grim-faced Pacific Gas and Electric Co. executives called a news conference to say the utility had alerted emergency crews and were ready for anything. One PG&E spokesman even talked about "the storm of the century." But PG&E spokesman Jeff Lewis said late last night that only 300 customers in central and Northern California lost power in the storm.

Phone service, however, suffered last night, with AT&T long- distance lines cut off in the 415, 510 and 408 area codes, AT&T representatives said. A computer or switching equipment problem, possibly weather-related, was believed to be the culprit, AT&T said.

AT&T initially said an estimated 4,000 trunk lines were cut but could not say how many customers were affected.

The storm began to lose intensity on its way toward California late Monday, and there was only light rain during the morning commute, no rain at midday, and moderate rain turning heavier at times as afternoon wore into evening.

San Francisco had received only 0.17 of an inch of rain by 4 p.m. but picked up another 0.4 in the next six hours. As of 10 p.m., 1.17 inches had fallen in San Rafael, 0.51 in Oakland and 0.77 at the San Francisco airport.

The 60-mile-per-hour winds forecast are now expected to be about 25 miles an hour, with a chance of thundershowers this morning and rain showers today.

"There will be some areas of heavy showers, but not in the amounts that were previously thought," said National Weather Service forecaster Kathy Clark.

A snow advisory has been posted for the Sierra Nevada for today.

Tomorrow is expected to usher in a "drying trend" for about a week in central and Northern California, the weather service said.

One problem in California forecasting, Clark said, is that weather approaches the coast from the ocean, where the weather service depends on observations taken by merchant ships. These observations showed strong winds Monday night, but the system spent itself at sea.